CPS Direct put a fresh new face on out-of-the-box thinking with an integrated campaign for e-commerce software vendor Space-Works. The effort showed a baby poking its head out of a cardboard box to demonstrate the speed at which SpaceWorks can help companies "give birth" to e-commerce programs.

The baby-in-the-box theme was used throughout an eight-month campaign including five separate direct mail pieces to the same 35,000 high-level executives in large manufacturing companies. The direct effort was supplemented with a page ad in business and tech magazines from May through yearend.

The goal was twofold: to build a brand for the little-known SpaceWorks and create new-business leads.

"Considering that they're up against major names like Broad-Vision and Vignette [Corp.]-major public companies with hundreds of millions of dollars in sales-SpaceWorks knew they needed help to get put on the map," said Mark Bell, senior VP-marketing services at Woburn, Mass.-based CPS. "We not only helped build a brand for them but also put together a very solid lead-generation effort."

The five direct mail pieces sent over eight months-including various sized envelopes, cards and a box with a T-shirt that shows the baby in the box-garnered an average response rate of about 1.5%.

"There was definitely a frequency strategy in play here-hitting people over and over. If they don't respond the first time, maybe they'll respond the second or third time," said Evan Stone, exec VP-creative director at CPS.

"It exceeded our expectations tremendously. We were very impressed with the level of respondents, the size of the companies of those respondents and the quality of the leads in general," said Liz Sara, VP-corporate marketing at SpaceWorks.

SpaceWorks last year tapped CPS as first agency of record for its $5 million marketing budget.